


A Straightforward Job

by agentx13



Category: Marvel 616, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen, Leverage AU, sharon carter month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23214406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agentx13/pseuds/agentx13
Summary: It was a straightforward job that had gone off the rails. Steve was the mastermind. He’d trained himself to anticipate every scenario. In the high-stakes game of insurance, when millions of dollars were on the line, mistakes could get a person killed.But Steve is still alive. Rumlow is going to regret that.
Relationships: hints of future Sharon Carter/Steve Rogers
Kudos: 5
Collections: Sharon Carter Month





	A Straightforward Job

**Author's Note:**

> A _very_ thin Leverage AU that I might come back to, depending on how things go. I'd like to see how the characters grow.
> 
> And if you haven't seen Leverage, it's a great show!

It was a straightforward job that had gone off the rails. Steve was the mastermind. He’d trained himself to anticipate every scenario. In the high-stakes game of insurance, when millions of dollars were on the line, mistakes could get a person killed.

But Steve is still alive. Rumlow is going to regret that.

He comes to in a hospital. His fingerprints have ink on them. They don’t have much time left before their identities are discovered. His current company is less than legally favored. If they get sussed out, the FBI is going to be on them in no time, and this is going to be far easier to get out of.

“You don’t like hospitals,” Bucky says.

Steve doesn’t answer. He needs to get out of here. “Natasha. Get me a phone.”

“This is going to suck,” Natasha says. It’s the only warning any of them get before she shoves her fingers in her mouth.

Sam jumps back, but he’s still handcuffed to the bed. “She just- she just threw up! How- What did you _eat?_ ”

* * *

The doctor comes to check Natasha out. He talks about concussions, and as Steve anticipated, her health comes before the law enforcement’s curiosity about why Natasha is now in the boys’ room when no one saw her come in through the door. 

While the doctor talks about his concerns and advises her to rest, she and Sam lift the doctor’s phone and a deputy’s keys.

When they’re alone again, Bucky uses the phone to the local sheriff and asks him to hold, and Steve takes over to tell the sheriff about the FBI’s undercover officer the sheriff has arrested. He has Sam fax over a fake CV, and they all get in a commandeered car and drive away just the real FBI pulls into the lot.

* * *

Sam wants to leave. He gets them tickets to anywhere but Boston.

But Steve isn’t ready to run. He’s spent the entire ride over here thinking. But it’s when he sees the notes in Sam’s apartment, the headlines and newspaper clippings on the wall, that he knows what they have to do. “You’re running,” he says.

“Hell yeah,” Sam declares. “We just got played and almost blown up.”

“No, I mean, Rumlow. _Rumlow_ is running. The annual shareholder’s meeting is coming up. Big deal. Rumlow stands to make millions off the plans he tricked us into stealing for him.” He walks toward the wall to get a better look at the headlines. The pictures show Rumlow smug and smiling. Steve can wipe that smile off his face. He _will._

He turns to the others. “It’s the perfect time to take him down. He doesn’t know we’re alive. He feels safe. Secure.”

“What’s in it for us?” Bucky asks. 

“Revenge. And if everything goes right, a whole lot of money.”

“What about me?” Natasha asks.

“A whole lot of money. And if it goes right, revenge.”

“What’s in it for you?” Bucky. Steve figured he’d be the one to ask, but he was hoping no one would.

He can’t bring himself to lie. The pain is still raw. Has been and will be for far too long. “He used my mother.”

No one says anything. They look like they want to say something, ask questions, but he silently challenges each of them.

Sam crosses his arms and leans against a table. “It’s not gonna be that easy. He knows our faces. He knows all our faces.”

“Then we find one he doesn’t know,” Steve says simply. He knows just whom to ask, too. Without waiting for them to follow – because he knows they’ll follow – he leads the way out of the apartment. “What we need, is a Sharon.”

* * *

The performance is riveting. She’s playing Lady Macbeth, and she’s truly, magnificently awful. Phrases are confused, words stumbled, blocking forgotten. He can’t take his eyes off her. Not for the same reasons the others can’t look away. Natasha even asks if she’s injured – like, in the head.

They try to talk him out of it as they wait for her in the alley behind the theatre. But Steve knows that she’s the one they need. They’ll see.

She steps out, hand to her temple as if kicking herself for screwing up. She jumps when he starts clapping. “My one and only fan,” she greets him, and there’s a faint sway to her hips that he remembers too well. She stops several feet away. “I’m straight now. Honest.”

“I’m not,” he says.

“You’re playing for my side now?”

He only looks at her. She’s even prettier than he remembered. And he knows she’ll be brilliant. “You in?”

“I wouldn’t miss this.”

He holds the van door open for her.

* * *

He doesn’t expect them to get along. He doesn’t need them to. They each have their roles. He’s the mastermind. Bucky’s the hitter. Sam’s the hacker. Natasha’s the thief. Sharon’s the grifter. That’s all they have to do. So when Bucky asks about his mom, Steve says flat-out that they aren’t friends. But when Sharon needs help with her ear-bud… Well. He’s a gentleman. How can he not?

Nonetheless, bonds begin to form. Sharon is particularly good at worming her way in, reading what people need and how to get it to them. Steve envies that skill.

* * *

Sam is convinced Sharon’s going to suck. Steve can’t blame him. But when the con starts and Sharon has a seamless South African accent, he’s impressed all over again. He’s chased this conwoman around the world multiple times, but being on the same side for once is an experience.

She’s the only one Rumlow hasn’t met yet, and she plays him like a fiddle. With her leading him too deep in to get out, with Steve making it clear that this is for revenge but allowing Rumlow to think he can still beat them – and Rumlow will never be able to resist showing that he’s on top – it’s only a matter of time before they carry the day.

Even Steve is surprised just how well they carry the day. Sam tries to explain how currencies carried over, but in the end says that he’s just very good at his job. 

It’s a one-time job, though, and they separate.

The three of them are on him in seconds, walking alongside him and making the case to take on another case.

It isn’t until Sharon is in his path that he stops.

“You know bad guys,” she says. “Bad guys have money. Everybody wins.”

Steve looks at her, considers. He likes watching her work. And she’s right. Rumlow isn’t the only bad guy out there with money.

“One more case,” he relents.

He doesn’t know that when he says “One more case,” Sam hears, “Design a non-profit with FBI-proof false identities and an office with twelve years of backlogged history to make them appear legit. And let’s get a portrait of Steve, aged enough to look like his own ancestor, and hang it so everyone who comes in the office sees it.”

But one day, far in the future, he’ll find he doesn’t mind.


End file.
